What do you think of old skoolies?

[VanLifeCrisis]

There is a church selling an 89 international school bus, the long one, for 2000 here.  It has been for sale for a couple months now, so i think i might be able to work a deal out on it.   Supposedly it runs good, but needs work on steps.  It has 144k miles on it. 

How tough are these things to drive, park and repair?  Are tires hard to find?   I'm sure they are expensive.

 

[LoupGarou]

See if you can get it insured first!
Where do you plan to park it when your not driving it?

 

[ilovemyvan]

Hi Martin,

We lived in one for 8 years. It was parked in one location for the last 4. It was a standard and it was a bit difficult for me to change gear because I am short but I got use to it. It actually was fun to see the double take the truck drivers were taking when they saw what they thought was a kid driving the bus. It was fun to drive at first but it got old pretty fast. It was noisy, uncomfortable and it took an awful lot of gas. If I remember correctly we average something like 4 - 5 mpg. We only moved it twice a year south for the winter, north for the summer. We encountered a lot of prejudice specially in the north east. We were turned away from campgrounds and we were not stealth at all. Fortunately for us we were working at skydiving centers and we were able to park it at the drop zone most of the time. I really don't know what we would have done otherwise.

One good think for it was that it was easy to find the parts for repair, which is good because we always had to do some repair on it. We found ourselves stuck on the side of the road more than once (picture yourself stuck somewhere in the southwest with no cell service). We built the inside with material from stores like Home Depot no need for expensive RV store equipment. Yes the tires are very pricey. We were lucky, we never had to buy any but we were told that it was around $800. each. I never check that price out, it was before the internet days. We always cover the tires when we were parked somewhere for a while.

I personally would not buy an other one. Just ask yourself why the church is selling it, specially at such a low price. They probably would keep it if it was still reliable. I have a feeling that this bus traveling days are counted. $2,000 seems like a good price for such a big thing but the head aches coming with it would be quite big too, I think.

-Nicole

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

yeah you may be right, maybe a short bus is a better idea lol or just make due with what i got for now.

 

[ilovemyvan]

The bus would be perfect for someone that just want to move it once onto their own lot. They are great then. You can do what ever you want inside, lots of room to play with. I enjoyed living in the bus I just didn't like moving it around

-Nicole

 

[compassrose]

I live in a 40 ft bus. The tires are the same as on a semi truck (I have 6 of them.. tires, not semi trucks). Depending on what state you are in and how it is titled it can either be difficult or easy to tag/title/insure. A lot of insurance companies only will insure if it is a completed conversion. Others will simply refuse or take your money then drop you. National General Insurance (formerly GMAC) is the company more reported as insuring your bus with liability insurance. Progressive is reported as the one most likely to insure you then drop you a few weeks later.

I can drive anything. My Blue Bird is an automatic and 40 ft long.

 

[eDJ_]

This video may be of interest to you.  It does contain some useful information.

I was once looking at something like this and talked to a School Bus Driver.  He
was putting me on to the makes and models which were the most durable and which
ones didn't seem to hold up too well.  In Ohio all Schoolies are Diesel. 

I think this is part 1 of 2

 

[akrvbob]

I drove school bus for 5 years and I never found it difficult to drive them. Every fall the transportation companies and school districts hire and offer free training. Most of the drivers are older or retired people, as many women as men and nearly everyone can master the driving. It's easier than you'd think.

School buses are the most regulated, best maintained vehicles on the planet, they are a pretty safe bet. Personally, I'd be looking for an IH with a 7.3 diesel. You know it's a great engine and can get parts and service anywhere.

I drove a long time ago in Alaska and we had mostly IH 345 gas V8s. It's a great engine but at best it got 5-6 mpg. We had some diesel pushers and they were buggers to start below zero. I took them out of town for long weekends and was under strict orders to never turn them off if it was below zero. Never slept better than I did sleeping on top of that diesel purring away.
Bob

 

[Canine]

Shuttle buses based on the E350 or newer E450 are good too.  Right size, roomy, not to hard to park, not abnormal to see them parked around places, many are V10 Fords, and I've seen them for $10K or so.  

Las Vegas Bus Sales has a 2001 Glavall:
Item Details
Exterior Color:White
Interior Color:Gray
Stock Number:S13568
Odometer:192,167
Engine:6.8 Liter V10 Triton Gas Engine
Transmission:Automatic With Overdrive
Passengers:12
Our Price:$11,995.00




Tires are cheaper than school use since shuttle busses are like class C's.

 

[gcal]

Lots of room, airy windows, and easy stairs, but I wouldn't own one. Too many places I want to go where the length would shut me out. Maybe if you are just parking it .....

 

[c_hasbeen]

I am building my bus now, and after doing a year of research and looking at a ton of other peoples conversions, in person and pictures I decided on build my own.
insurance is easy, you insure as a bus, it will be a commercial policy but it really is not that bad cost wise because the bus is old.

The international bus will most likely have the DT 466 of the DT 360 engine, if it is diesel, otherwise iit will have a V8 gas engine. these are going to be all mechanical engines with NO computer to deal with.

excellent choice in my opinion.

you can drive it anyplace you really want to go, it is a truck frame with a bus body on it.

they drive all over town, in the residential areas, on the highways, on gravel and dirt roads, in the mud and snow during the service years of their life.

Tires are tires and they do cost but so does everything else no mater what you are looking for.

I say go make a low offer on the price I believe scrap across the scale at the yard will be 800 to 1500 bucks depending on how big it is.
No reason to pay more than that if you can avoid it.

 

[gcal]

C_hasbeen, we insured our class a as a fulltime living vehicle. It added about $400 to the premium, but it gives the insurance company no wiggle room if the wanted to deny coverage.

 

[biere]

As mentioned the tires are same as what a class 8 truck tends to run. Read up on retreads. I don't really like retreads on steer tires but would not mind em on the rear duals, I worry a lot more about the age of the tire base than I do the tread coming off but everyone has to decide for themselves.

When they say it needs work on the steps, look at that and the other areas around the wheels very closely.

If damaged in an accident, that should be visible.

If rotten, need to see how bad and be honest about your skills.

Read up on the floor of school buses, tends to be rubber stuff, wood, and rubber stuff. Lots of pics of people having to replace old wood if you run some searches.

Basically if some water started damaging the floor of the bus you might be in for a project.

As I recall most steps were metal but if damaged they could have let water get into that area of the floor.

I drove a school bus for one school year and I worked as a mechanic for a bit, this was decades ago. Gassers tended to be preferred on the highway because they could wind out and go a bit faster than the diesels. The diesels did fine overall but tended to lack the top end a gasser had. Don't recall mileage at all, we had a gas card and just filled em up at the stations the card worked for.

It is a medium duty truck chassis and I would research the body builder of the bus, such as bluebird or whatever, because I recall us having to get some specific odds and ends from a parts supplier for the bus body but most stuff was easily found at a napa truck store or an international dealer for internationals.

I picked stepvan because it is what I stumbled on in my price range. I would not mind a schooly but I will admit I don't like the interior height of most school buses, I can't stand up straight and especially if I get into insulating things much.

Here in tn with my insurance company they just type in the vin number and the stepvan comes up commercial, it is a 14,100 lb gvw chassis so I don't know what it is that they are seeing since it could be that or the stepvan.

Anyway, got a commercial policy and I signed paperwork that says I do not use it for commercial use. I got liability only cause it is paid for and that fits my budget. Not too expensive but did take a bit of work insuring vs normal stuff.

Have sort of asked about the rv conversion for insurance change and basically with my insurance people I am in a rut with the vin number saying it is commercial.

Call you insurance people and ask around. I ask mine all sorts of stuff and they find it somewhat amusing at times, but overall that is what they are there for.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

thanks for good info, im sticking with van for now, but useful for other people who are interested.